Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to profoundly change all aspects of society, including work. The biggest recent advances have been in tools that generate text, images, video or audio, also known as “generative AI”. Tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Midjourney are being embraced by businesses and workers across the OECD, in the search for improvements in worker productivity and in job quality, among other potential benefits. Policy and institutions play an important role in steering AI towards these positive outcomes, enabling businesses of all sizes to pursue these benefits, empowering workers to effectively use AI and to prepare for labour market transformation.
This study collects new survey data across seven countries on how SMEs use generative AI to address skill and labour needs and how SMEs are preparing employees to use generative AI. It contributes to the existing evidence by delivering: comparable and representative data for each country based on a comprehensive definition of generative AI; a systematic analysis of the reported labour market impacts of generative AI; and insights to inform policy to close digital and skill divides between companies of different sizes.
This study was set in motion thanks to early support from the UK Economic and Social Research Council, for which the OECD Secretariat is very grateful. The study also benefitted from support from: Austria’s Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection; the Department for Employment and Social Development Canada; the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS); Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea. Thanks also to Ipsos NV, who carried out the fieldwork.
This report was prepared by Marguerita Lane and Carla Ruggiu from the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, under the supervision of Stijn Broecke and Glenda Quintini. Special thanks to Marco Bianchini and the Digital4SME Initiative for sharing their valuable insights on digitalisation and AI take‑up among SMEs throughout the course of this project. The report benefitted from helpful comments provided by colleagues from the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (Shizuka Kato, Jiyun Lee, Fabio Manca, Anna Milanez, Patricia Navarro-Palau, Mark Pearson, Anne Saint-Martin and Takahiro Toda), from the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (Marco Bianchini and Andrew Paterson) and from the Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation (Celine Caira, Julia Carro, Hélder Costa, Flavio Calvino, Alice Holt, Lucia Russo and Lea Samek). Thanks to Natalie Corry and Hanna Varkki for providing publication support.